Facebook Updates Page Insights, Breaks Out 'PTAT'

Brands evidently haven't been satisfied with Facebook's People Talking About This (PTAT) page engagement metric. So the digital giant, as part an overall revamp of its 3-year-old Page Insights product, is breaking out the catchall stat into a handful of data points, which are rolling out starting today on a limited basis.

While PTAT will continue to be available for those not participating in the initial roll-out, the following parts of that page metric will be offered (to those participating in the preview) separately:

page likes

people engaged—or the number of people who have clicked on, liked, commented on or shared a post

page check-ins

other page interactions

Also, Facebook says its virality metric—the number of people who have created a so-called story from a post as a percentage of the number of people who have seen it—will now involve clicks and be referred to as an "engagement rate."

Additionally, in a move that's a mirror opposite to the previously mentioned PTAT shift, the social channel's Page Insights will combine a post's performance, reach and engagement. In the prior version of the system, the trio of factors were presented one by one to page administrators.

"This will help Page admins better identify content people interact with, produce more of it, and enjoy increased reach and impact on Facebook," Facebook wrote in a blog post today. "In recent months, we've been gathering feedback about our Page Insights tool. What we heard is that we need to make page insights more actionable. It should be clearer to businesses how to use this information to drive the results they care about."

These moves mark the latest in a consistent string of Page Insights iterations since Facebook launched the analytics program a few years ago.

Brands evidently haven't been satisfied with Facebook's People Talking About This (PTAT) page engagement metric. So the digital giant, as part an overall revamp of its 3-year-old Page Insights product, is breaking out the catchall stat into a handful of data points, which are rolling out starting today on a limited basis.

While PTAT will continue to be available for those not participating in the initial roll-out, the following parts of that page metric will be offered (to those participating in the preview) separately:

page likes

people engaged—or the number of people who have clicked on, liked, commented on or shared a post

page check-ins

other page interactions

Also, Facebook says its virality metric—the number of people who have created a so-called story from a post as a percentage of the number of people who have seen it—will now involve clicks and be referred to as an "engagement rate."

Additionally, in a move that's a mirror opposite to the previously mentioned PTAT shift, the social channel's Page Insights will combine a post's performance, reach and engagement. In the prior version of the system, the trio of factors were presented one by one to page administrators.

"This will help Page admins better identify content people interact with, produce more of it, and enjoy increased reach and impact on Facebook," Facebook wrote in a blog post today. "In recent months, we've been gathering feedback about our Page Insights tool. What we heard is that we need to make page insights more actionable. It should be clearer to businesses how to use this information to drive the results they care about."

These moves mark the latest in a consistent string of Page Insights iterations since Facebook launched the analytics program a few years ago.